The year before I had a job. If that changes, then this one won't be for sale, unless the right price is offered.

This one is not just an RC model, it's meant to be an accurate model of the boat at a particular point in her career. Baltimore paid $10k for the 1:24 scale static model of Pride II for their visitor's center, a model physically about the same size. Wanting at least that much for a working model seems like a bargain to me.

Made a pair of stuns'l booms or chop-sticks - I haven't figured out which.

The jack yard, although made right off the plan was about an inch too short - and didn't extend above the top of the sail as it does in the photos, so I made a new one.

I put jack-stays on the yards of brass eyes and rods. That got blackened, then painted, but I couldn't get a photo where you could see them once they were painted. These will get foot ropes, blocks and a few other things attached.

All the spars, including masts, got paint, oil, or poly depending on how the real spar was finished - except the boom. The boom needs some cleats and fittings attached before it gets oiled. Spars that had thing sliding on them like hoops and rings were oiled (masts, boom, etc); other unpainted, or bright spars were varnished (main topmast, t'gallant yard, etc; the rest were painted flat black.

The t'gallant and tops'l were brought in the house to get bolt ropes sewn on so they can be laced to their spars. I'll try to document that better since there seems to have been some interest in bolt ropes lately and people's fear of needles is showing. Maybe I'll put that in the "prototype details" thread.

When the other yards are done, those sails will be attached. I'm going to take a shot at using dress-hooks.

I haven't made a ring-tail boom because I have no intention of using it. But I can't recall where it was stowed. I can't recall even seeing it. The main tops'l was usually tied up inside the port quarter rail, so I assume the ring-tail boom was tied up on the other side. I'll probably have to make one then, as it's an item that can be seen, even if I don't use it - like the stuns'l booms.

Didn't get a thing done this weekend. Spent the whole time with CaptMSR, his wife, and my lady, riding on tug boats, watching Navy jets buzz about, drinking beer, and playing pool. I actually won one game - out of 10 or so - boy I'm out of practice.

Not many - as we were on board, but CaptMSR is usually running their biggest boat stationed in Baltimore, the Robert, and since he gave her some fresh paint while she was getting her drives replaced - I took a couple of shots of her for him.

My 3 pics were after the air show, headed into the harbor followed by the Kaleen. Robert was already on the job docking a barge. The last shot was taken before my shots by a fellow that works in a container crane where the boats were waiting out the air show - Robert almost looks new.

Now the mains'l is getting it's bolt-rope. So far the luff is done and I've just turned onto the foot. The picture shows how the reef cringles, head, and tack eyes were seized on each side and in the center through the eye. I also made a few turns at each point where the hoops will lace on as I stitched down the luff.

I have been looking all over for the length overall of the Pride of Baltimore 1 and saw this impressive build. I've spent the last hour marveling at your work. Do you know the LOA? I am trying to complete a half hull model and am ready for the plaque to be engraved. Thanks

The yards got cleats near the ends, and chocks for the stuns'l booms inboard of the irons.

I cut a ring for the boom from some tubing, though I may replace it with a ring. The picture shows the wedge under the boom that lifts the out-haul so it doesn't interfere with the ring. The ring slide on the boom hauling out on the mains'l clew and holding the clew close to the boom.

It's been an education for me - and I handled all this stuff myself. I scraped the foremast cross-trees to deck and oiled it, replaced a few ratlines, restropped a couple of blocks, and sewed a couple of patches of on the forestays'l - and I can barely remember a thing about the boat 30 years later.

Interestingly, I downloaded the instructions for Model Expo's Pride II and it says in there that Pride has things that aren't exactly modern, and yet aren't "the old way" either - ie: things on Pride are done the 'Pride way.' That's as true of the old boat as it is the new one.

Anyway...

The real clew ring had a smaller ring on it. If I solder one to my ring, it'll soften the brass too much, so I'm going to make another from rod all in one piece and solder the joints. That'll look more like the real one too.

A while back a fellow at the Naval Academy brought in some twisted Dacron line from Courtland Line, sold as fishing line. He had several diameters from maybe 1/32" right up to 1/8". This stuff would be perfect for models - but Courtland won't get back to me and I haven't been able to find anything but braided anywhere else.

Then I remembered that I used to work for a sail-maker and everything is sewn with dacron thread, tarps, tents, awnings, biminis, sails, and so on. So I ordered some sail thread in black and "oyster" (gray). It arrived today.

So, I've been putting off motorizing my rope-walk and decided to do that today. I used an old cordless drill I found at a thrift-shop for a dollar or two as the drive. It has the same 6 volt motor I used in Pride (Pride's motor came from the same type of drill). I cut off the bits of the case I didn't need, keeping just what was needed to hold the motor and gears. This I screwed to the baseboard and attached the baseboard to the rope-maker head with a pair of knees to hold it. I even drilled a hole to hold the chuck key

A while back I bought a model railroad transformer to power this contraption - so much for that idea. The power pack didn't have the juice to make the drill do more than hum.

Till I figure that out, I commandeered Pride's battery and ran the machine with it.

My first try was with two threads per strand. Everything when fine and a nice tight but flexible line was produced that measured .05 in diameter.

Next I tried 4 threads per strand and that yielded a line .0625 in diameter - precisely 1/16".

I went backwards a bit and tried one thread per strand using the "oyster" colored thread. That netted a precise 1/32" line.

Then I tried 8 threads per strand. That got me to the 1/10" which will do nicely for the shrouds of all three models. It's not quit 1/8" but it looks right.

Now I have to make lengths of about 8 feet for the shrouds. I think that's going to be an outside job.